In March 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services—through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)—released a draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for public comment. A collaborative effort between ONC and more than two dozen federal agencies, the plan outlines federal health information technology (health IT) goals and objectives, focusing on improving access to health data, delivering better and more equitable care, and modernizing the nation’s public health data infrastructure. More than just a roadmap of federal government priorities, the plan is also intended to catalyze the private sector.

Health IT includes a range of technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), for processing, storing, accessing, exchanging, and using electronic health information (EHI). Health IT is integral to care delivery, health management, and outcomes measurement. The plan includes four goals and their accompanying objectives and strategies, in part to address experiences and outcomes of health IT users:

1. Promoting health and wellness, focused on improving health experiences and outcomes for individuals, populations, and communities
2. Enhancing delivery and experience of care, focused on improving how patients experience care, how providers deliver care, and how health plans reimburse for care
3. Accelerating research and innovation, focused on advancing opportunities for individuals, researchers, technology developers, and other health IT users
4. Connecting the health system with health data, focused on the policy and technology components needed to support various data needs of health IT users, including infrastructure for underserved communities and protection of individual health information

Building on the progress since the 2020–2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, this draft plan increases the emphasis on public health, health equity, and AI. Each was a consideration in developing the draft plan: (i) for public health data systems, identifying gaps and opportunities to support real-time data exchange during COVID-19; (ii) for health equity, addressing ongoing disparities in access and outcomes, including access to EHI and technology and representation in research; and (iii) for AI, incorporating machine-based systems in health care practice, health IT tools, and everyday life.

The plan has broad implications for private entities, particularly (but not exclusively) federal contractors. In signaling the federal government’s health IT priorities, the plan can help private entities that process EHI prioritize resources, coordinate with stakeholders, set goals and metrics, and assess progress.

Comments on the draft plan are due by May 28, 2024, and ONC and its federal partners will consider the input and publish a final version of the plan later in the year.

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